Genesis 11

Now the whole earth had one language and the same words.

And it happened as they migrated from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. \*

Then they said to each other, “Come, let us make bricks and bake them with fire.” And they had bricks for stones, and they had tar for mortar.

Then they said, “Come, let us build a city for ourselves and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, so that we are not scattered over the face of the whole earth.” \*

Then God came down to see the city and the tower that the sons of mankind had built.

And God said, “Behold, {they are} one people, and they all have one language. So this {is} what they have begun to do, and now everything that they plan to do will not be impossible for them.

Come, let us go down and there confuse their language, so that they will not understand each other’s language.” \*

Then God scattered them from there over the face of the whole earth, and they stopped building the city.

For that {reason} they called its name Babel, because there God confused the language of the whole earth, and from there God scattered them over the face of the whole earth. \*

These {are} the generations of Shem: Shem {was} the son of 100 years, then he fathered Arpachshad two years after the flood.

Then after he fathered Arpachshad, Shem lived 500 years, and he fathered {other} sons and daughters. \*

And Arpachshad lived thirty-five years, then he fathered Shelah.

Then after he fathered Shelah, Arpachshad lived 403 years, and he fathered {other} sons and daughters. \*

And Shelah lived thirty years, then he fathered Eber.

Then after he fathered Eber, Shelah lived 403 years, and he fathered {other} sons and daughters. \*

And Eber lived thirty-four years, then he fathered Peleg.

Then after he fathered Peleg, Eber lived 430 years, and he fathered {other} sons and daughters. \*

And Peleg lived thirty years, then he fathered Reu.

Then after he fathered Reu, Peleg lived 209 years, and he fathered {other} sons and daughters. \*

And Reu lived thirty-two years, then he fathered Serug.

Then after he fathered Serug, Reu lived 207 years, and he fathered {other} sons and daughters. \*

And Serug lived thirty years, then he fathered Nahor.

Then after he fathered Nahor, Serug lived 200 years, and he fathered {other} sons and daughters. \*

And Nahor lived twenty-nine years, then he fathered Terah.

Then after he fathered Terah, Nahor lived 119 years, and he fathered {other} sons and daughters.

And Terah lived seventy years, then he fathered Abram, Nahor, and Haran. \*

Now these {are} the generations of Terah: Terah fathered Abram, Nahor, and Haran; and Haran fathered Lot.

And Haran died in the presence of Terah his father, in the land of his birth, in Ur of the Chaldeans. \*

And Abram and Nahor took wives for themselves. The name of Abram’s wife {was} Sarai, and the name of Nahor’s wife {was} Milcah, the daughter of Haran, the father of Milcah and the father of Iscah.

But Sarai was barren; she did not have a child. \*

Then Terah took Abram his son, and Lot, Haran’s son, his son’s son, and Sarai his daughter-in-law, the wife of his son Abram, and they went out together from Ur of the Chaldeans to go to the land of Canaan. But they came to Haran, and they settled there.

And the days of Terah were 205 years, then Terah died in Haran. \*